Currently there are thousands of individuals researching real property records across the country. The process of researching real property records is very archaic by nature. Typically an individual must conduct research within a public courthouse in an attempt to chain property conveyances from one party to another. Conveyances are historically kept in the form of paper and organized within hard bound books. As property is conveyed, public officials document the transaction outlining the property (or lands) being transferred along with addendums relative to the transaction.
An individual performing services will compile a chronological list of documents that all historically coincide with a tract of land, or real property. Once the individual completes his/her work, they have completed a chain of title for a given tract of land. To make for a more streamlined operation for the client or party requesting the services, the individual takes the list of documents and inputs information from each document into a template approved by the client. Depending on the scope of work, various portions of the documented conveyances and/or reddendum(s) listed within the document can be critical or irrelevant. Once complete, the individual should have all physical documents and a summary of those documents in the template, also known as a runsheet. That runsheet is then delivered, with the documents, to the client as a finished product.
There is no standard method used to construct a runsheet of a chain of title. With no industry standard, there are several chances to introduce careless error that could be easily avoided. Because of this, there is an inevitable quest to create a standardized method of electronically documenting and/or databasing this process in a way to create uniformity, thus simplifying the process.